North Carolina’s jobless rate ticked up two-tenths of a percent to 9.6% last month.

Figures released Friday by the state Division of Employment Security[1] (DES) show the private sector added 16,000 jobs over the month. But local government job losses erased much of that progress, with 14,200 positions eliminated.

“Given the trends we’ve seen over the last year, it is clear that increasing unemployment through government layoffs does not reduce joblessness,” said Alexandra Sirota, Director of the NC Budget & Tax Center.

DES officials note one bright spot in the data is the fact that North Carolina’s current unemployment rate is 1.1 percentage points lower than a year ago, when the jobless rate stood at 10.7%.